Bars and restaurants create a large amount of waste in the form of bottles and other glass articles. Generally, these are stored in large bins and then disposed of by collection in trucks. The mass of glass which a truck is able to take away is dictated by the space available rather than the weight because the majority of the load is air contained within the glass: for example in the internal volume of an intact bottle. Trucks can transport up to eight times as much crushed glass as complete bottles. Therefore, it is advantageous to transport crushed glass rather than whole bottles.
Where glass crushing devices are used, they usually have to be operated either away from customers and/or after closing time of the premises due to the noise produced during use. Additionally, the trucks collecting the bottles also create a large amount of noise, especially when tipping a large number of whole bottles into a container. This can be particularly irritating early in the morning or late at night.
One problem with crushed glass is that it can contain sharp projections that can cut skin. Additionally, during the crushing process, there may be shards of glass that are projected out of the crushing device back towards a user, thereby putting the user at risk of being hit by high-speed glass. Even where the risk of glass being projected back towards the user is low, glass dust may be expelled by the device and breathed in by a user.
A further disadvantage of traditional methods of dealing with commercial glass waste is that the bottles are often stored behind the bar and then moved to another location at the end of the night when the customers have left. This creates ‘double-handling’ whereby the glass has to be moved twice, once to the bin behind the bar and then again to the bin for collection. This increases the amount of time that the staff are required for a shift and can lead to back problems if the staff member has bad lifting technique.
Notably, there is value in crushed glass separated into different colours compared to crushed glass of mixed colours, which is a further reason why glass is traditionally taken off site for sorting and crushing.
The present invention seeks to address the above problems and to provide a glass-breaking device, particularly for us hi a bar establishment having a cellar beneath the bar.